Decisive Fleet Battle (1)

6:17 a.m. on August 1. Off the Belfort Archipelago.

The deck of the SDS Horizon was crowded and chaotic, packed with wyverns and people.

"Raise the elevator!"

"Over here! Bring an aerial bomb to Wyvern No. 3!"

"Machine-gun check complete! Wyverns 1 through 7, cleared for launch!"

On deck, it was difficult to hold a long conversation over the noise of people and wyverns running about and the powerful wind.

As a result, the soldiers communicated in short, rapid exchanges. Beyond the soldiers waving glow sticks and lining up the wyverns for launch in orderly rows, the rising sun could be seen.

Amid the greatest confusion the deck had ever seen, Victor, squadron leader of the Second Wyvern Air Wing, calmly gazed out across the sea.

'Once the battle begins, cling to the enemy as stubbornly as possible.'

The order he had received was very simple.

Tie down the enemy fleet so that the abyssal monsters and surface fleet would be separated.

"Does everyone know their orders?"

"Yes!"

"Our objective is to tie down the enemy fleet! Maintain a distance of roughly 1 km from the enemy fleet, and focus on avoiding the mages' antiaircraft attacks rather than attacking the enemy fleet!"

Ordinarily, mages and wyvern units were not a particularly good match for each other.

That was because of the fundamental problem with the wyvern unit's range.

Compared to mages, whose attacks had a range of roughly 2 to 3 km, a wyvern's breath reached only about 100 m at most.

That was why the basic engagement rule for wyvern units was to avoid the mages, but...

"Don't force yourself to use your breath. Attack from a distance with your machine guns."

Thanks to their twin 20mm machine guns, the wyvern units had gained a range comparable to that of mages.

The power of the machine guns Victor had experienced firsthand was truly astounding. With firepower that could grind wood apart while making a terrifying chainsaw noise, they would be more than capable of taking on sailing ships.

Victor could feel that the times were changing.

Human technology had advanced until it was every bit as developed as magic. Rather than dismissing human technological achievements, mages now needed to find a way to move forward alongside them.

But the Empire was doing nothing of the sort.

Archaic elitism. The suppression of advanced technology. Corrupt bureaucracy and the unchanging views of the ruling class.

'At this rate, the Empire will be devoured by the other great powers.'

The overseas great powers might not have been moving as quickly as the South, but they had already achieved a certain degree of modernization.

That was why Victor and the knights had volunteered for this operation.

"Before the Empire is carved up by the great powers, we'll fix the Empire ourselves."

At this rate, the Empire's downfall was obvious.

Their loyalty was to the Empire, not to its incompetent and corrupt ruling class.

"Second Air Wing, cleared for launch!"

And so, the twenty wyverns of the Second Air Wing immediately kicked off from the deck and took flight as soon as the order was given.

***

The most important thing in the naval battle against the East was to separate the enemy's abyssal monsters from its surface fleet.

And to do that, it was necessary to expose the submarine fleet to some degree.

The air raids would only be effective once the enemy began pursuing the submarine fleet.

The Eastern Navy was no fool. The experience it had accumulated in naval warfare while ruling the Empire's seas for a full thousand years could never be dismissed.

What if they conducted air raids without a submarine attack? The abyssal monsters would probably simply stop where they were.

The Eastern Navy knew full well that allowing its abyssal monster units and surface fleet to become separated was a bad idea.

"So the submarine unit's role is extremely important this time as well."

The submarine unit had to force the enemy into a no-win situation.

They had to ask, from a dangerously close distance where the enemy might catch them, 'Are you going to follow us?'

If the enemy followed, the surface fleet and abyssal fleet would be separated. If it did not, the abyssal fleet had to be left in a position where it could be attacked one-sidedly.

Naturally, the vanguard assigned that role was led by Ethan, captain of U-7.

He had the most experience commanding the submarine unit.

"Range approximately 10 km, bearing 0-1-5! Multiple enemy contacts sighted!"

"Good. All fleets, begin moving according to plan."

He had been given a total of twenty submarines.

He divided the submarines into groups of ten and chose to fire their torpedoes in sequence.

If they all fired from one location, they would not be able to draw out the entire enemy abyssal monster unit.

So they attacked from all directions in sequence. They had to draw out the enemy abyssal monster unit one group at a time.

"Communications from U-1, U-2, U-3, U-4, and U-5! They report that they've reached their points!"

"Have them fire their torpedoes as soon as they're ready."

The bubbles of torpedoes cutting through the sea announced the start of the battle.

***

The waters off the Belfort Archipelago were clear and blue.

When morning came and the fog lifted, a peaceful, beautiful sea without a single wave was revealed.

Thanks to that, visibility beneath the sea was excellent as well.

Good enough to spot the wakes of torpedoes cutting through the water at once.

Grrrrrrrr-

The moment the abyssal monster handlers saw the torpedoes rushing toward Tusoteuthis, they immediately surrounded it with rays, sharks, and other small monsters.

At the same time, the torpedoes exploded.

Kuuung-!

A flash flickered once beneath the morning sea, and a massive shockwave spread outward.

The shockwave literally tore the bodies of the small abyssal monsters apart. More than ten abyssal monsters lost their lives in a single explosion.

"Hahaha, looks like they're in a hurry too, eh?"

But the monster handlers' reaction was calm instead.

They had more than enough abyssal monsters to use as shields. So, without the slightest hesitation, they began pursuing the unidentified enemy.

"Attack confirmed bearing 0-6-5 relative to the fleet. We'll pursue."

In the middle of the enormous procession of marine creatures beneath the sea, the two Tusoteuthis changed direction.

At the same time, the mass of marine creatures split exactly in half and followed the Tusoteuthis.

"Attack from bearing 3-0-5 relative to the fleet!"

The attack came from the opposite direction about five minutes after the Tusoteuthis unit had split apart.

Two enormous columns of water shot upward, and the corpses of abyssal monsters floated to the surface.

Admiral Ernst of the East gave the order without hesitation.

"Pursue them! This is our chance to show them who the true predators beneath the sea are!"

With those words, the remaining abyssal monster unit began swimming toward the direction from which the attack had come.

Of course, Admiral Ernst had not split the abyssal monster unit without a plan.

The abyssal monsters had headed toward the diagonally left and right directions.

That meant the main fleet could sail straight down the center while staying within a distance that would allow it to rejoin them at any time.

"The main fleet will continue toward the South as it is. We'll sail while keeping enough distance for the abyssal monster units on either side to rejoin us easily."

At first glance, it was a perfect plan.

They could keep the mysterious undersea monster used by the South in check, and even if the enemy's 'battleships' appeared, the Tusoteuthis could counter them sufficiently.

If only there had been no variables.

In other words, if the wyvern unit had not appeared.

"Multiple wyvern units sighted overhead!"

Against the clear blue sky, twenty wyverns spread their enormous wings.

At first, most of the soldiers, including Ernst, watched the wyvern unit's appearance without giving it much thought. The wyvern units they knew had a range of only a few dozen meters.

Besides, they had no fewer than five 8th-circle mages on their side. It was such an overwhelming numerical advantage that the wyverns would not dare descend.

"Those are the knights who dared betray the Empire and cling to the South! Show them no mercy!"

In the very center of the fleet, the mages standing atop the masts of the ironclads spread out magic circles in unison.

"Maintain the fleet's speed as it is. They won't be able to approach us anyway."

Following that order, the fleet of sailing ships filling the sea continued silently forward.

As expected, the wyverns did not dare approach. At least, that was what the Eastern captains thought.

"Ha, only the South's mage-less fools fear wyverns like that."

"To think they'd try to block the path of our fleet with some ten wyverns. How utterly foolish."

At that very moment, the machine guns mounted on the heads of the wyverns flying 2 km away spat fire.

- Bwoooooooook!!!

With a horrifying chainsaw shriek, red flashes poured down from the sky. A 4th-rate frigate caught in the barrage was literally torn apart before it had time to react.

Hundreds of holes appeared in its sails in an instant, turning them into tattered scraps that scattered in the wind. The ropes wrapped around the masts melted away, and the deck disintegrated outright.

The sailors standing on it turned into bloody lumps and vanished before they could even realize they were dying.

Kuuung-!

The mast collapsed onto the deck. The side of the ship was ripped away as if shaved down by a gigantic plane, while the internal bulkheads and fittings shattered into pieces.

It took only a few seconds for the frigate to be torn apart.

That sight alone was enough to tie down the enormous fleet.